Archive | May 13, 2019

Space Race The Journey to the Moon and Beyond

Space Race The Journey to the Moon and Beyond

Space Race The Journey to the Moon and Beyond

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Space Race The Journey to the Moon and Beyond

Sarah Cruddas

DK, 2019 

192pp., hbk., RRP $A34.99

9780241343777

For such a long time, people looked out into the blue sky of day and the black sky of night and wondered – what is out there? But to discover the answers was just a dream until the early 17th century when Galileo refined the work of Hans Lippershey and became the first to develop and use a telescope for astronomical purposes.  

While science fiction writers imagined and wrote about space travel, the real space race as modern generations know it began in October 1957 when the Russians launched a beach-ball sized object which they called Sputnik (“travelling companion”) and it became the first manmade device to orbit the earth. This astonished those in the US who believed they would be the first to be in space because they thought they were clearly much further ahead in both scientific research and military firepower, but now there was a clear threat that the USSR could achieve military dominance in space. And so the space race began with an impact that reached as far down as the elementary school curriculum and a new focus on the sciences.

Now the two countries work in relative harmony on the International Space Station and a host of other countries and companies are opening up space as a commercial and tourist destination. 

This new publication traces the origins and development of the space race  taking young, independent readers on a journey through the breakthroughs and the disasters, giving them an insight into the amazing changes that have taken place just during the lifetime of their grandparents, changes that have contributed to changes in their own lives as the technologies involved become commonplace in their world. Using diagrams, photographs and easily-accessible text major milestones and their implications are explored giving explanations and perceptions into why what has happened ‘out there” has relevance and importance for “down here”.

With the 50th anniversary of man’s first walking on the moon looming in July, there are many new publications about space and its race becoming available and this is the perfect opportunity to revitalise your collection with new, up-to-date resources. This is the perfect addition to that collection.